1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image forming apparatuses such as printers and copiers, apparatus main units of these image forming apparatuses, and cartridges containing toner to be used in these image forming apparatuses, and particularly relates to techniques of carrying out management of these cartridges using wireless tags.
2. Description of the Related Art
In image forming apparatuses such as printers, fax machines, and copiers, which are provided with development devices that develop an electrostatic latent image on the surface of a photosensitive drum using a two-constituent developing agent constituted by toner and carrier, image forming is carried out by turning the electrostatic latent image into a toner image using toner supplied from a cartridge mounted in the apparatus main unit, then transferring this toner image to paper or the like. Then, when the toner in the cartridge becomes low, toner is replenished into the image forming apparatus by having a user replace the cartridge with a new cartridge.
In this case, although there is no problem if the newly replaced cartridge is a legitimate and genuine product of the maker of the image forming apparatus or a product certified by the maker (hereinafter collectively referred to as “certified product”), cases are being found in which cartridges other than certified products (non-certified products) are being used. When a cartridge other than a certified product is used, it is not only that the full capabilities of the image forming apparatus are not achieved, but it also possibly leads to malfunctioning of the image forming apparatus.
For this reason, many image forming apparatuses developed in recent years make use of technologies such as RFID (radio frequency identification: wireless automatic identification) in carrying out cartridge management. In this case, a wireless tag in which cartridge and toner information is stored as tag information is attached to the cartridge, and after the cartridge is mounted, a communication circuit arranged on the main unit side of the image forming apparatus reads the tag information, thereby identifying whether or not the cartridge that is mounted is a certified product.